State defence materiel agency Armscor has revealed that Milkor has been chosen to supply armoured vehicles to the South African Army, which is seeking several hundred for border patrol and other duties.
In a statement released by Armscor Corporate Communication representative Nonduduzo Nyathikazi on Wednesday, the state-owned entity said, “The bid has been awarded to Milkor SA (Pty) Ltd, a South African company with proven track record in the military environment.”
In January 2023, Armscor issued a Request for Information (SA Army/R/403/6) for a 2+8 seat armoured personnel carrier (APC) capable of counterinsurgency operations with variable ballistic and mine protection able to defeat an 8 kg mine. Seven companies responded to the RFI (DCD Protected Mobility, Denel, OTT Solutions, Paramount, Automotive Investment Holdings/ICP, and SVI).
The intention was to evaluate the different vehicles along the South African borderline in operational conditions in October/November 2023 and afterwards demonstrate the vehicles during the SA Army’s Exercise Vuk’uhlome in November 2023.
Armscor was originally supposed to place the procurement contract from 1 April 2024, but this was delayed. On 23 July 2024, Armscor issued tender ELWS/2024/71 for personnel carrier vehicles for border patrol, to be utilised for internal and external missions of the SA Army. Nearly 500 vehicles are to be acquired, in three variants: 210 Section variants, 144 Command variants, and 108 Ambulance variants.
The bid called for a vehicle with a 13.5 ton Gross Vehicle Mass, while catering for a minimum payload of 1.5 tons. Ballistic protection must be to NATO STANAG Level 1 that covers 7.62 x 51 mm and 5.56 mm ball ammunition. Mine blast protection must be to Level 2 (single 6 kg surrogate mine placed under the vehicle). The vehicle must be air transportable in Ilyushin Il-76 or Airbus A400M aircraft and also be able to be carried on ships and flatbed rail containers.
Bids were initially due to close on 23 August 2024, with deliveries expected on or before 15 March 2025. However, the tender has faced numerous challenges, including changing requirements – Armscor revised specifications, reducing the combat weight as the original user requirement was mostly taken from that of the Badger infantry fighting vehicle for the SA Army, and this was not practical for the vehicles required for border patrol.
Bid validity was extended to cater to delays, and in a letter to bidders dated 17 June 2025, Armscor’s Supply Chain Management announced another extension to 30 September 2025.
Nyathikazi explained that Armscor received eleven bids, of which six complied with “critical criteria evaluation.” By October, Armscor had selected a preferred bidder and had submitted a Financial Authorisation request to the SA Army.
In revealing Milkor as the tender winner, Nyathikazi stated that Armscor conducted a due diligence exercise on the preferred bidder to confirm amongst others, the technical and financial capacity of the bidder to execute the requirement of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF).
“The order placed provides for specific risk mitigating factors where the contractor may not proceed with any work prior to the successful acceptance of the First Article Variants by Armscor within a specified timeframe. The order further provides for performance guarantees to ensure the technical and financial performance of the contractor is in line with the terms and conditions of the order,” Armscor stated.
Although Armscor did not specify which vehicle Milkor would supply, the company offers three models: the Bushcat 4×4 armoured personnel carrier, Frontier light tactical vehicle based on a Land Cruiser chassis, and Vanguard MRAP (Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected) vehicle.
The new vehicles will replace the ‘troop pack’ vehicles previously acquired for border patrol – over 400 Toyota Land Cruisers were originally bought for this purpose. National Treasury allocated R500 million in 2024/25 for the procurement of vehicles to replace the troop packs.
The delays, changing tender requirements and other issues related to the tender have seen complaints from losing bidders, who have accused Armscor of changing bid processes to possibly favour a particular manufacturer. As reported by The Citizen, Armscor invited DCD, Paramount, and SVI to send vehicles to the SA Army’s Technical Services School for physical inspection on 28 February, to be followed by field testing along the borders from 3-26 March. However, the field evaluations were cancelled.
“The process was not delayed nor changed to favour any particular bidder,” according to the Nyathikazi statement, which added that the live field tests were not part of the pre-determined value system of the request for bid (RFB) and was not intended to be used for any evaluation purposes. “There are also no compulsory protocols such as the field tests, that needed to be followed in the procurement process. The field tests could therefore not favour any particular manufacturer.”
Armscor also received objections from bidders indicating a concern that the field tests were not part of the request for bid requirements. “It is correctly reported that the field tests were cancelled in order to align with the RFB requirements. The vehicle specifications were not altered during the process; however, clarification was provided to bidders regarding applicable standards for amongst other, ballistic protection.”
Furthermore, Armscor said it executes its mandate in accordance with the provisions of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA). “In line with these provisions Armscor followed the established procurement processes in the evaluation and adjudication of the bids in a fair, equitable, transparent, competitive and cost-effective manner.”
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